Tag Archives: David Accampo

On November 3-4, come visit SPARROW & CROWE writers David Accampo and Jeremy Rogers at the Long Beach Horror and Comic Con in Long Beach, California!

Dave and Jeremy will be at Booth #1502 in the Artist Alley section of the show floor (for a map of the show floor, click HERE). They’ll be signing copies of Sparrow & Crowe #1-2, as well as a VERY unique and special con-exclusive book, printed just for the show! Come by to see what it is! Posters and preview art will also be available.

Christa Nahhas, Chloe Myaskovsky and Chris Anderson, contributors for the SPARROW & CROWE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL will also be dropping by at various times!

On Sunday at 1pm, Dave and Jeremy will also guest on a special “Comics from Scratch” Q&A panel — all about creating comics, utilizing Kickstarter, publishers, digital publishing and more! The panel begins at 1pm on Sunday in Room 102B!

Just in time for Hallow’s Eve, Dave Accampo and Jeremy Rogers sat down with Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko for a roundtable discussion on our favorite types of horror, horror comics, and the process of writing. It’s a fun, in-depth discussion that reveals some behind-the-scenes processes bits about SPARROW & CROWE: THE DEMONIAC OF LOS ANGELES and the SPARROW & CROWE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL, as well as Gabriel and Corinna’s books HEATHENTOWN, STATION TO STATION, and PLANET OF THE APES: CATACLYSM!

KC: You also co-host on a number of podcasts including The Fuzzy Typewriter and The Deceptionists where you dispense invaluable writing advice. For the aspiring comic creators in our audience, is there any advice you’d care to share?

DA: I love chatting with the Deceptionists about various writing topics, but I hesitate to call it advice. I feel more like we’re sharing experiences and asking questions of one another. So, I feel like my advice would be to take your craft seriously and learn from everyone. There’s a Zen Buddhism concept called “Beginner’s Mind” which I feel is incredibly useful to writers. It just means that you have to keep yourself open – treat everything as a potential learning experience. When you do that, you’re open to learn from EVERYWHERE. And, I think that’s valuable, because the writing “opinions” I’ve formed over the years have come from so many different sources. Reading comics scripts, creative writing teachers, editors, director commentary tracks on DVDs, books on writing, interviews with writers, your peers. And, most importantly: the act of writing itself. You can and should be learning from everything. And, that’s something that Paul Montgomery and I also share in our sensibility with the Fuzzy Typewriter podcast – we both genuinely love stories and storytelling, and no matter what we’re talking about, I think we both are trying to examine the art and also crack it open a little to see what makes it tick.

Kristine Chester has a new early review of Sparrow & Crowe #1 up at Fanboy Comics.

Here are a few bits we like:

Accampo and Rogers did a great job pacing this first issue. They waste no time getting to the action and manage to convey a lot of backstory and characterization along the way. No big monologue is necessary to explain who Crowe is; his actions convey his characteristics.

And regarding Jared’s art:

Artist Jared Souza complements the writing with his art’s cinematic feel. There is a lot of detail in his artwork, which lends a gritty, lived in feel to the world. Souza even switches the angles of the “camera” frequently, using perspective to enhance each scene.

On the latest episode of the Fuzzy Typewriter podcast, Dave Accampo and Paul Montgomery (host of Fuzzy Typewriter and former Wormwood staff writer) sit down and discuss The Sparrow & Crowe comic book, delving into the history of Wormwood and the creation of the characters of Doctor Xander Crowe and Sparrow by Dave and Jeremy Rogers, starting back in 2006.

Dave also talks about being approached by Jared Souza to adapt Wormwood, and then all the processes involved in creating a new story for comics and shopping it to publishers.

It’s an insightful conversation that gives a lot of insight into both the creative and production processes for the new series.

Hermes Press launches its original comic book line in Spring 2012 with Sparrow and Crowe: The Demoniac of Los Angeles, the spin-off of the successful Wormwood audio drama podcast. Dark, suspenseful, funny, and action-packed, Sparrow and Crowe promises to kick the new Hermes Press comics line off in its own inimitable fashion.

Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery debuted in 2007 and ran for three seasons, following the supernatural adventures of Doctor Crowe, a washed-up exorcist haunted by his own demons, and his sardonic Goth girl partner Sparrow. The transition from audio to visual was sparked by artist Jared Souza, according to co-creators David Accampo and Jeremy Rogers:

“We created Wormwood as an audio drama because we knew we could cut loose and tell a long-form, serialized story with a modest budget and a big imagination-not unlike what comics do best. I’m a lifelong comics fan, so when Jared Souza-as a listener of the show-contacted us and asked us about collaborating on a comic book adaptation, it seemed like a no-brainer,” says David Accampo.

“As soon as we looked at Jared’s first penciled pages it was clear that transferring Wormwood into a visual format was going to be a fun new way to tell our devious horror-infused story. With years of intricate character and plot development already done, we began to think about the structure and pacing of comics. As a result, our approach suddenly evolved into something visually dynamic, and we discovered we could flex different muscles and create a scope would be simultaneously unique to print while still maintaining the essence of what had come before in our audio productions.”

“I wanted to bridge the gap between comics and audio drama, feeling the two art forms complimented each other nicely and felt like Wormwood would be the way to do it,” Jared Souza reflects. “In choosing to watercolor this story I hope to convey the surreal paleness of the atmosphere in Los Angeles and to capture some of the feeling of 1970s cinema. Obviously, Sparrow and Crowe is set in the present, but I feel like the mood and cinematographic style of the ’70s is well suited to this type of horror/suspense.”

Sparrow and Crowe: The Demoniac of Los Angeles combines old-school horror with modern cinematic storytelling, as they face off against Crowe’s biggest failure and greatest enemy when a powerful demon possesses the daughter of a Los Angeles crimelord. It’s a catch-22 for the duo, as they’re stuck between both hell and the mob, with the girl’s life hanging in the balance.

Tentative plans are to follow up the Demoniac storyline with the further adventures of the occult pair.

“Fans of Wormwood know we’ve created a big universe for Sparrow and Crowe. They’re not just modern occult detectives, they’re rich characters tormented by the past-and a knack for getting into the worst kinds of trouble. So we’ve still got all kinds of stories to tell, looking both forward and back in the mythology we’ve created,” Jeremy reveals.

As the comic book mini-series begins production as a creator-owned series at Hermes Press, the creators will also launch a fundraising campaign via Kickstarter to help with costs associated with the project in the coming weeks.

“As most comics fans know, it’s a difficult market out there,” said David, “so we’re hoping that Wormwood fans and comics fans will help us bring this next chapter to fruition. We’re trying to make it worthwhile, with some excellent rewards for contributors. Hermes has also really stepped in here, donating some great books to the cause, which we’ll be giving away to donors.”

As the comic book mini-series begins production as a creator-owned series at Hermes Press, the creators have also launched a fundraising campaign via Kickstarter to help with upcoming costs associated with the project. Full details and links to the campaign can be found at the comic’s website, sparrowandcrowe.com.

“As most comics fans know, it’s a difficult market out there,” says David, “so we’re hoping that Wormwood fans and comics fans will help us bring this next chapter to fruition. We’re trying to make it worthwhile, with some excellent rewards for contributors. Hermes has also really stepped in here, donating some great books to the cause, which we’ll be giving away to donors.”

Sparrow and Crowe: The Demoniac of Los Angeles will be available in both print and same-day digital via iVerse next Spring.

Welcome to the Sparrow & Crowe comic book website! The good news is that we have secured a publisher to launch our first original miniseries, Sparrow & Crowe: The Demoniac of Los Angeles.

The first issue debuts in Spring 2012 in print and digitally. We’re incredibly excited about the chance to take the popular characters of Doctor Xander Crowe and Sparrow to a new frontier in a new medium — with an original tale that’s also a prequel to our popular audio drama series, Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery.

Be sure to check back often as we update with more details about our impending launch!

The Demoniac is Here!

Caught between Hell and the mob, Doctor Xander Crowe and his partner Sparrow must face Crowe's biggest failure... and worst enemy. Sparrow & Crowe: The Demoniac of Los Angeles is an original comics miniseries by David Accampo, Jeremy Rogers and Jared Souza.